[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, 2/25/04

[Elizabeth Thomson]

Hi Everybody,

Editors' Club member Kathryn Rotondo kindly sent me the following 
note after reading the minutes from the last meeting. Since several 
of the Editors at the last meeting were not too sure of what a "blog" 
is (I'm one of 'em), I figured that those folks and others might 
appreciate Kathryn's definition (and links).

cheers!

Elizabeth



>
>Hi Elizabeth,
>
>I have to beg to differ, or to clarify, what a blog is!
>
>The terminology for personal Web sites started with "activity log" 
>back in the olden days (circa 1990) and has since morphed to 
>"weblog", and now "blog."  So blog actually refers to a Web site 
>where one person or a group of people write about their experiences, 
>opinions, news etc., as the main content of the site.  Of course 
>there are always new uses for blogs, but that's the gist.
>
>The feature I believe Jean might have been referring to is 
>"commenting", which is indeed available on many blogs.  While the 
>original content is called a "post", visitors to the blog can write 
>"comments" in response to the post.  It should be of note that not 
>all blogs have this feature (for example, Nat Friedman '99: 
>http://www.nat.org/blog)  Here are some examples of blogs with 
>commenting:
>
>	newsy
>	http://slashdot.org/
>
>	political campaigns
>	http://blog.johnkerry.com/
>	http://www.georgewbush.com/blog/
>
>	personal
>	http://loobylu.com/
>	http://www.kerismith.com/blog/
>
>Hope this isn't Too Much Information.  Being a blogger myself, and 
>seeing that people on the editors list like to use words precisely, 
>thought I'd try to help set the record straight :)
>
>Kathryn
>
>>But back to Jean, who brought up a second related topic. She is 
>>thinking about adding a "blog" to the online Insider. "What's a 
>>BLOG?" whined several of us. Essentially it's a form attached to a 
>>story so that people can send in their opinions or otherwise chat 
>>about the topic at hand. "It's designed for people who like to 
>>expound---publicly," Jean said. Blogs can also be great "for 
>>getting a discussion going." Jean further explained that you can 
>>get free, open "blog" software that  you can install on your 
>>server....


-- 
===================================
Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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